ABSTRACT:
In ancient Indian literature, it is mentioned that every plant on this earth is useful for human beings, animals and other plants. The liver is the key organ regulating homeostasis in the body. It is involved with almost all the biochemical pathways related to growth, fight against diseases, nutrient supply, energy provision and reproduction. Diospyros melanoxylon (Roxb) is native and endemic tree of India and widely found forests of central, western and northern India. This is the most common species of forests of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The chemical constituents present in leaves having valuable flavones, pentacyclic triterpines. The present study was conducted to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of ethanolic extract of leaves of Diospyros melanoxylon (Roxb) against CCl4 induced liver damage in rats. The ethanolic extract of Diospyros melanoxylonwas administered orally tothe animals with hepatotoxicity induced by CCl4. Silymarin was given as reference standard. The plant ethanolic extract was effective in protecting the liver against the injury induced by CCl4 in rats. This was evident from biochemical investigation of serum glutamate oxaloacetate transeaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic Pyruvate transeaminase (SGPT), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Total Bilirubin (TB). Histopathology of CCl4 treated group rat liver showed intense centrilobular necrosis, congestion of sinusoids with small lipid globules. Whereas in ethanolic extract of leaves of Diospyros melanoxylon and Silymarin showed almost normal lobular architecture with mild centrilobular degeneration of hepatocytes without necrotic changes. It was concluded from the result that the ethanolic extract of Diospyros melanoxylon leaves possesses hepatoprotective activity against CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity in rats and it is less when compared to Silymarin as evidenced by the significant difference in biochemical parameters.